Sadly my guts never last in the market. I bought some Tesla years ago and then sold and bought and sold a few times, but didn't really make much out of it as I chickened out before a big jump that I didn't see coming. Bitcoin? A friend encouraged me to mine it back in the 90's and I decided it was dumb, would be a waste of time. DOH!!! Sigh. Such is life. I've been damn lucky to always have something bail me out when times get tough, be it moving (often with a 50%+ increase in value of my home), someone dying (my wife, my parents) or whatever. Not a sustainable thing, but at 57 I'm doing OK despite not having a paying job in the 2020's.
Everyone who was anywhere near a computer in the 90s has that exact story. The ones who did buy it mostly lost the drive down the back of a sofa, so I have stopped grieving mine.
Doing all right at 57 without a wage coming in is its own kind of clever, even if none of it felt like a plan at the time.
It is mostly due to the lawsuit and life insurance. If I was really smart I'd have invested better and not wasted tens of thousands fixing up my old home in Thunder Bay. But for a long time I saw only the good there, not the bad. Took a few eye openers to wake me up. Part of why I've moved roughly ever 8 years as an adult. Once I see the unfixable issues (for me) in a city I want to get out of there. Holding on now as my neighborhood is great and I know odds are any other place would not be a lot better. It is about that time when something goes right (about once a decade) to put me in a better financial position. My life is weirdly lucky that way.
Leaving the moment you can see what isn't going to get fixed is a habit I recognise. It gets called restlessness, usually by people who stayed somewhere miserable for thirty years and called that stability.
And staying put because the neighbourhood is genuinely good is a different thing entirely from staying put because you can't move. Sounds like you've got the good version this time.
Sadly my guts never last in the market. I bought some Tesla years ago and then sold and bought and sold a few times, but didn't really make much out of it as I chickened out before a big jump that I didn't see coming. Bitcoin? A friend encouraged me to mine it back in the 90's and I decided it was dumb, would be a waste of time. DOH!!! Sigh. Such is life. I've been damn lucky to always have something bail me out when times get tough, be it moving (often with a 50%+ increase in value of my home), someone dying (my wife, my parents) or whatever. Not a sustainable thing, but at 57 I'm doing OK despite not having a paying job in the 2020's.
Everyone who was anywhere near a computer in the 90s has that exact story. The ones who did buy it mostly lost the drive down the back of a sofa, so I have stopped grieving mine.
Doing all right at 57 without a wage coming in is its own kind of clever, even if none of it felt like a plan at the time.
It is mostly due to the lawsuit and life insurance. If I was really smart I'd have invested better and not wasted tens of thousands fixing up my old home in Thunder Bay. But for a long time I saw only the good there, not the bad. Took a few eye openers to wake me up. Part of why I've moved roughly ever 8 years as an adult. Once I see the unfixable issues (for me) in a city I want to get out of there. Holding on now as my neighborhood is great and I know odds are any other place would not be a lot better. It is about that time when something goes right (about once a decade) to put me in a better financial position. My life is weirdly lucky that way.
Leaving the moment you can see what isn't going to get fixed is a habit I recognise. It gets called restlessness, usually by people who stayed somewhere miserable for thirty years and called that stability.
And staying put because the neighbourhood is genuinely good is a different thing entirely from staying put because you can't move. Sounds like you've got the good version this time.
Try long enough and you find the right place.